Your life is larger than an LLM
“There is nothing more mysterious than a TV set left on in an empty room,” Jean Baudrillard once wrote¹. “It is as if another planet is communicating with you. Suddenly the TV reveals itself for what it really is: a video of another world, ultimately addressed to no one at all.” No generative artificial intelligence system has suddenly revealed itself to date, but their outputs ultimately don’t address anybody either. AI can compute pretendedly, but it cannot know who we are.
The unconsciousness of large language models (LLMs) has not halted their release into realms of conscious life. Increasingly stitched into our social fabric, new tools are causing tension at work and in leisure. Some resist new capabilities, others find them revolutionary. Like the TV left on in an empty room, AI emits glows that few directed and that no one can agree on how to define.
As an advocate for deeper community involvement in AI development, I recently spoke with Berlin based sociotechnologist Jürgen (tante) Geuter about the importance of collective action. Having studied philosophy and computer science, Jürgen wants us to remember that tech and its advancement is not what matters most, we are. Innovation alone is hollow without our meaning.
